Hi-

I'm finishing my basement and I am bending conduit for all of the electrical circuits. This conduit work, along with everything else, will be examined by the village building inspector for code.

1) I'm basically running conduit in my first large room (30'x30'). To get the conduit to my receptacles, I'm putting a few strategically placed junction boxes on my exposed joists overhead and I'm "spidering" out from the junction boxes overhead out to where the receptacles will be. As I'm spidering out, I'm also having to put some extra bends in to avoid various items (ductwork, pipes, etc.), and I'm noticing that as I'm bending my conduit and joining receptacles to junction boxes that sometimes the conduit does come in "perfectly" at a 90 degree angle into the junction boxes due to my rookie bending skills. They're close, but if you look at some of my runs closely, some of the connections are a little off, but still easily fit in the holes I've knocked out of the junction boxes. Are there code requirements that demand that conduit always fit at exactly a 90 degree angle into junction boxes, receptacle boxes, etc., or are you allowed to be a little off, as long as the appropriate connections can be made and the conduit is secure?

2) I'm planning a closet with a light switch and a light. I have a junction box nearby where the power for the light will be coming from. Normally one would run conduit from the junction box to the switch, then conduit from the switch to the light in order to make the appropriate paths for the lighting. Am I allowed, though, to have a path from that junction box to the switch, and then a path from that same junction box to the light, and just wire through the junction box both ways when I wire for the switch? Or do I have to have a "direct" route from the switch to the light?

3) Can someone suggest a website or something that will explain to me what all those marks mean on the head of my 1/2" conduit bender? I would love to learn how to do "S" bends and "U" shaped bends to dip below things when running straight lines, but I haven't figured out an easy way to do them!


Thanks,
Steve

 

HERES your website where you can dowload info. for using the bender. Click on benders and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

How do you get the locknuts tight and the connector shoulder flush to the box if the conduit is not aligned with the knockout hole? You can put a "kick" in the conduit to get it aligned.

 

1) The size of the connector is about 1/16" smaller than the knock-out hole in the J box, so you have a bit of leeway. You are just starting out so perfection isn't expected. You do need to make sure your connectors are squarely connected. It is always good to run a separate green wire [ground] anyways.
2) You can run from the J box to the switch. In this case, just run the hot wire down there. And run the switch leg directly thru the J box to the light - you don't have to splice it. And the neutral can run straight thru to.
3) I haven't looked at Sparks recommend site [yet], but it will probably help. If you have further questions, keep shooting.
~Peter

 

As always, thanks for your help guys.

 

Here's a "trick-of the-trade" for marking tubing when bending stubs and 90" elbows----if it's a bender that has a 5" "deduction" index on the bender then set the 5" index of the ruler on the end of the tubing and mark the tubing at the ruler index for the required lenth.---Good Luck!!!!

 

Upon furthur reflection, I got to thinking about this 90º thing. Perhaps the airline pilot from Chicago is not using "box offsets" which are about 1/2" offsets to properly line up with the box holes.
PS: Does ualdriver ever fly to Lindberg? If so, wave hi!

 

Thanks P Michael. And yes, I do fly through Lindbergh quite often.........